Heads Full of Lightning

A Look at Some Bright Ideas Lit by Sun Valley’s Young People

Text: Chad Walsh Photography: Mark Oliver

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Over its history, this Valley has spawned some notable art, literature and theatre and, not to forget, Olympic athletes of all kinds from equine to special needs. All of us have had an idea for making our lives easier, but it takes a true entrepreneur to make it real. There’s a whole bunch of people here quietly tinkering in kitchens, garages and on computers all around us hatching new inventions every day. We’ll introduce you to some of these unsung dreamers.

Wheeling into the Light

Jamey Allsop

A few years ago, Jamey Allsop and her father, Jim, set out to build a better mousetrap, so to speak, not by reinventing the wheel, but rather by reinventing the wheelbarrow. The idea was deceptively simple and relied on the use of one of technology’s oldest ergonomic tools: the lever. Instead of struggling to lift, say, heavy river rocks into the barrow’s belly to later dispose of, you simply roll them onto a flat canvas liner, which you lift up from the ground up using two handles that fork the barrow’s tire for easy carting.

The success of the WheelEasy, patented by Allsop (now known as inventors and investors of new consumer product technologies) allowed the idea of Allsop to reinvent a part of itself, specifically as Allsop Home & Garden.

Headed by Jamey Allsop and her dad, Allsop Home & Garden, independent of its parent company, has expanded the product lines to include garden lights and lanterns to illuminate a hard day’s work in the yard at night.

Allsop says her father thought cracked blown glass could not only provide ambient light to a garden or an outdoor sculpture, but would do so in a variety of aesthetically-pleasing patterns. The lights and lanterns are “green,” too, collecting and storing solar power during the day. You can now find them in gardening stores across the country including local dealers such as Webb and Moss.